How do you change brake light 2004 Jeep Liberty?

Answer 1

I own a 202 Liberty. I changed the rear brake light/ tail light myself. To change the passenger side is easy. Open the rear door and locate the two screws that hold the fixture to the body. You should be able to see both of them easily while looking at the fixture from the rear of the car. The tool needed is a T15 torx screwdriver, at least that is what I used. This tool is needed because the head of the screw is a "star" pattern and requires the torx screwdriver bit. If you have no idea what I am talking about just search for "torx" on wikipedia and you'll learn. Anyway, back to the task. Put the torx head of the screwdriver into the top of the torx screw head on the vehicle and turn counter-clockwise (to the left) and remove the screw. Remove the other screw using the same method. To remove the entire lens fixture, you need to "pop out" two plastic barbs that are inset into two plastic connectors in the car body. This step is completely reversible, if you do it properly. To "pop out" the lens you will need a wood or plastic shim. Don't use a screwdriver you will either crack the lens or chip the paint or both. Take the thin edge of your shim and slide it between the car body and the tail light lens and push it into the now widening gap. Rock the lens fixture back and forth a bit while prying with the shim gently to the rear until the barbs holding the lens "pop out" of their holes. Change the bulb by grasping the round gray plastic part that holds the lamp (for the brake light, its the top one) and turning it about one fifth of the way around to the left (counterclockwise) the gray lamp holder should now easily come out of the fixture. Pull the lamp out of the gray holder and replace with the new lamp. Replace the lamp holder into the lens fixture. Line up the barbs on the lens with the holes in the car body and hit the rear-facing portion of the lens assembly sharply and firmly with the heel of your hand. Replace the screws and tighten snuggly. Don't overtighten, you might crack the lens fixture or strip the threads out of the car body and the lens will not stay in place. Test the new lamp by having a volunteer step on the brake while you observe the light operation. If your lamp does not glow when the brake is pressed, you may have changed the wrong lamp. To change the passenger side is a slight bit more tricky as you will need to open the back door all the way to the point of being parallel to the left side of the car (or in other words - perpendicular (rt. angle) to the rear of the vehicle). After you have the back door open properly, look through from the inside the hinge area and you will see the top of two screws (the same size as the ones on the passenger side). Place your screwdriver into the head of the screw from the inside of the door and turn the screw counter-clockwise. You may want to make sure you have a magnetic screwdriver so that you don't lose the screw into the hinge or bumper area forever and need to go buy a new screw. If you don't have a magnetic screwdriver, you might be able to reach down inside the opening between the lens fixture and the door to hold the screw with your fingers while loosening it. After you remove both screws, you will need a wood or plastice shim to "pop" out the barbs on the lens fixture that is holding the lens to the car body. After removing the lens, remove the lamp holder (for the brake light (it is the top one) by turning the gray plastic part about one fifth of the way counter-clockwise. The lamp holder should come out esily and from this point you should be able to pull the lamp from the holder. Replace with new lamp and reverse the steps. Test the lamp to make sure the repair was successful.